FOCUS
Analogue Photography · Darkroom · Camera Obscura · Digital Photography
Analogue Photography · Darkroom · Camera Obscura · Digital Photography
LEARNING THE MEDIUM
I first studied photography formally during my Industrial Design degree in Florence, beginning with the fundamentals of light, exposure and optics before moving into film development, darkroom printing and digital photography.
I became particularly fascinated by the physical process behind an image — from exposing a sheet of photographic paper to developing and fixing it by hand.
THE CAMERA OBSCURA
During my first year, I built a camera obscura from a simple shoebox, recreating the basic principles of the university's darkroom on a much smaller scale. Light entered through a tiny aperture and projected an inverted image onto photographic paper, which I then developed and printed manually.
Handmade camera obscura built from a shoebox
Below two photographs created with it
BUILDING THE CAMERA
Later that year, I built a more sophisticated optical bench for my analogue photography course, with a lens, interchangeable diaphragms and an expandable bellows system for focusing and correcting perspective.
My optical bench - Me working with it, 2010
I developed the photographs myself in a makeshift darkroom built inside a storage cupboard in my student flat — complete with a red safelight.
FROM FILM TO DIGITAL
I went on to work with a 35mm reflex camera, developing my own film for my photography exam, before moving into digital photography with a Canon 1000D in 2010.
I also continued experimenting with analogue photography and Lomography, particularly the unpredictable effects of vignetting, light leaks, blur and accidental overlaps.
